Venus Williams’ US Open ended at 2:01 a.m. on Monday, beaten 6-2, 7-6 (6) by fellow American wild card Sofia Kenin in a first-round match that had not begun until 12:13 a.m. Both times went into the record book. The start was the latest for any match in US Open history, six minutes past the 12:07 a.m. mark set by Aryna Sabalenka and Ekaterina Alexandrova in the third round in 2024. The finish was the latest a first-round match has run at Flushing Meadows.
How the night got there. Williams and Kenin were the second match of the Arthur Ashe Stadium night session, scheduled behind Novak Djokovic. Djokovic’s five-set loss to Mariano Navone lasted four hours and 36 minutes. The two women were sent toward Louis Armstrong Stadium as the men’s match stretched on, then brought back to Ashe when it finished in time.
The rule that was available. The USTA introduced a policy in 2024 giving the tournament referee discretion to move a night-session match to another court if it has not started by 11:15 p.m. Tournament director Stacey Allaster described it at the time as conditional on operational readiness — broadcast crew, ball crew, court staff — rather than automatic. On each of the three occasions the threshold has been publicly tested since, the match has stayed where it was scheduled: Sabalenka and Alexandrova in 2024, Maria Sakkari and Beatriz Haddad Maia just before 11:30 p.m. in 2025, and Williams and Kenin on Monday.
What the rest of the sport does. The ATP and WTA adopted joint scheduling guidelines in January 2024 that discourage match starts after 11 p.m. without approval and recommend 6:30 p.m. night-session starts. Those guidelines govern tour events; the four majors set their own schedules. Wimbledon operates an 11 p.m. curfew that originates in an agreement with its local council rather than in tennis rules. The US Open has no curfew, and its latest finish on record remains the 2:50 a.m. conclusion of the Carlos Alcaraz–Jannik Sinner quarterfinal in 2022.
Williams on the scheduling. Williams said afterward that the start time was not ideal and questioned the practice directly. “I don’t know of any other sport where you have to start so late,” she said, adding that there was room for improvement.
The match. Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, needed 32 minutes to take the first set and led 4-2 in the second. Williams then pulled the late-staying crowd back in, forced a tiebreak and held set points in it, none of which she converted. The last of them ended with a ball into the net.
Where it leaves her. Williams is 46 and was making her 26th US Open appearance. She has lost her opening match at the tournament six years running, since winning a first-round match in 2019, and her last tour-level singles win came in Washington in July 2025. Asked about her future, she said she did not think she should have to address it. Doubles with her sister Serena follows later this week.
The wild-card chain. Kenin was in the draw because the USTA gave her the last women’s main-draw wild card on Aug. 23, a place that had been held open for Serena Williams while she weighed a singles return. Serena took a mixed-doubles wild card instead. The player who received the spot went out and ended the other Williams sister’s tournament.
